Niskayuna supervisor confident on Knolls atomic debris storage plans

Exterior view of the grounds of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Oct. 9, 2013, in Niskayuna, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Exterior view of the grounds of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Oct. 9, 2013, in Niskayuna, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Exterior view of the grounds of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Oct. 9, 2013, in Niskayuna, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Exterior view of the grounds of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Oct. 9, 2013, in Niskayuna, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

Niskayuna supervisor confident on Knolls atomic debris storage plans

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NISKAYUNA — Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed said Tuesday that she is confident of government safety measures in place for Cold War-era radioactive waste being stored at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.

Syed met June 28 with officials from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as with representatives of the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health.

Currently, 22 containers containing highly radioactive waste debris from the decade-long demolition of the facilities former Separations Process Research Unit are being stored at Knolls.

"The bulk of the waste is solid, with one container containing liquid mercury," said Syed. "I do not believe there is any chance of this becoming airborne, or leaching into the ground, or spilling into the river."

She said that Knolls workers will check the shielded containers, which are stored in metal shipping boxes, at least once a week to ensure that the containers, which are shielded to contain radioactivity, remain upright and undamaged.

More detailed examinations of the containers' integrity will be done every 90 days, said Syed.

A Health Department spokeswoman referred questions to DEC; officials at that agency referred questions to DOE.

A DOE spokesman confirmed that the meeting was on the "safe and secure storage" of the waste, but offered no further details.

According to a DOE report from earlier this year, the debris contains materials that have "highly radioactive exposure rates of up to 12 rem/hour."

A person receiving that much radiation in a hour would receive the equivalent of 6,000 X-rays, or 40 years of normal background radiation in the Capital Region. The level of radiation poses a serious health risk.

If the long-term state storage permit is approved, the waste could remain at Knolls through 2021, based on DOE's estimates to the state.

"DOE could not give us an answer at the meeting how long the waste might be stored at Knolls," said Syed.

Called transuranic (TRU) waste, this radioactive material was collected during demolition of Separations Process Research Unit buildings, where nuclear materials were developed for military use during the 1950s. The cleanup involved about 30 acres of the 170-acre Knolls site, where research was done on plutonium extraction.

According to a DOE documents released at the June 28 meeting, "there is no measurable radiation dose to off-site residents due to the presence of these containers."

Normally, the Knolls waste would be shipped to a long-term government storage facility in New Mexico. That underground repository — located in the desert outside of Carlsbad, N.M. — cannot currently accept it because of a backlog created when the site was shut down following a 2014 accident in which a containment vessel ruptured and spilled radiation.

Called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the repository is more than 2,000 feet underground to reduce the risk of such spills to the public. It reopened in 2017 after a three-year, $500 billion cleanup and renovation.